More turbulence ahead for Air India

Mumbai: After an Rs 800 crore booster shot from the government, the Maharaja was just begining to recover from his crippling financial losses. But now it seems Air India may slip into remission. Employee unions are up in arms against Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's recent statement asking Air India to curtail its loss making international operations. The unions are also angry with the government for not acting on a recent report tabled by the commitee on public sector undertaking that said that: 'The root cause of the ills plaguing the National Aviation Company of India (NACIL) aka Air India is the 'merger' with Indian Airlines.'
According to the report the merger never took off and has not helped either airline.
The unions main contention is that earlier when the central govt had allowed the AI and IA merger they had registered a strong protest with both Pranab Mukherjee and Praful Patel saying that the merger won't work.
In fact the unions reitirate that the commitee on public sector undertakings had recommended that the government have separate domestic and international airlines under a single holding company. So not surprisingly, the ACEU, Air India's largest employee union is now planning to hold a huge convention on April 10 where it plans to thrash out a common strategy to revive the airline in conjunction with all other employee unions.
25/03/10 Shuchi Srivastava/Bloomberg UTV

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: NACIL Mar 2010